"Doing Race Online: An Exploration of Race-Making on Social Media Platforms"

Amber Hamilton,University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Department of Sociology
In this talk, Amber Hamilton will examine Black Twitter as a case study to understand how Black users do race, express and construct what it means to be Black, resist racial oppression, and engage in cultural conversations on social media platforms. Similar to traditional Black spaces such as churches or barbershops, digital platforms have provided Black people the means to openly challenge oppressive structures and to render themselves visible in the public sphere in new ways.
 
BIO: Amber M. Hamilton is a doctoral candidate in Sociology at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities who will defend her dissertation in December 2021. Amber's research focuses on the intersection of race, racism, technology, and media studies and she has published work in these areas in Sociology of Race and Ethnicity and the MIT Technology Review. Her dissertation, titled Doing Race Online: An Exploration of Race-Making on Social Media Platforms, explores the meaning-making around race and racism that occurs on digital platforms through cases studies of Black Twitter and public statements from social media companies.
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